The Food and Drug Administration has given companies, scientists and members of the public an additional month to submit data on butylated hydroxytoluene, a preservative that appears on the ingredient labels of breakfast cereals, frozen meals, baking mixes, cookies and chewing gum. The new deadline is August 31, 2026.
The reopening, published in the Federal Register on July 30, restarts a comment window that had already closed on July 13. For shoppers, nothing changes at the grocery store today. BHT remains legal in food, and the FDA has not issued a warning, a restriction or a finding of harm. What has changed is that the agency's evidence-gathering file on the chemical is open again, and the record it collects now will shape whatever the FDA decides later.
